Nicaragua - Cicada Mania

Dedicated to cicadas, the most amazing insects in the world.

January 2, 2019

Well, the genus is still Proarna

This one’s a bit of a brain twister, so I’m going to dump some facts and run.

Proarna albida is a former name for two species: Proarna insignis Distant, 1881 and Proarna olivieri Metcalf, 1963.

Scientific classification down the genus:
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadinae
Tribe: Fidicinini
SubTribe: Guyalnina
Genus: Proarna

The image below might be either one…

Description for Proarna albida from Insecta. Rhynchota.:

This species is strikingly variable, both in size and also as regards the length of the second apical area of the tegmina. Stoll’s figure being very unsatisfactory, I have here figured a specimen from Costa Rica.

Found in: Costa Rica, Trinidad, Guyana, Suriname, and Brazil.

Description for Proarna insignis from Insecta. Rhynchota.:

Var. insignis:

Body much broader than in any varietal forms of P. albida which have passed through my hands, lateral margins of pronotum more ampliated, markings of the tegmina darker and more distinct.

Long. 24 millim., exp. tegm. 63 millim.

Three females possessing this form have passed through my hands. As I have not seen the their sex, and can find no sufficient structural character in the female of specific value, I have felt it necessary to give a varietal name for the present, to prevent confusion.

Found in NicaraPanamand Panama.

For comparison sake, P. olivieri is found in Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Brazil, Guyana, French Guiana, Surinam, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Cuba, Central America, South America. All over the place. From the notes within the Catalogue of the Cicadoidea (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha).

Whatever the latest name for Proarna albida is, it’s a nice looking cicada:
Proarna olivieri Metcalf, 1963

References:

The illustration comes from Biologia Centrali-Americana. Insecta. Rhynchota. Hemiptera-Homoptera. Vol. 1. By W. L. Distant F.E.S. and The Rev. Canon W. W. Fowler, F.L.S. (1881-1905). Read it on the Biodiversity Heritage Library website.
Name information from Allen Sanborn’s Catalogue of the Cicadoidea (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha).

Comments (0)

December 31, 2018

Odopoea diriangani Distant, 1881

Odopoea diriangani Distant, 1881, is a cicada found in Nicaragua.

Scientific classification:
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadinae
Tribe: Zammarini
Genus: Odopoea
Species: Odopoea diriangani Distant, 1881

Odopoea diriangani species description by W. L. Distant:

Ochraceous and unicolorous, obscurely pilose. Tegmina and wings hyaline, veins ochraceous. Face strongly carinate, its width and distance to outer margin of eyes being subequal. Eyes black, ocelli red. Pronotum with the lateral margins considerably ampliated and rounded, obtusely and obscurely angulated about middle. Mesonotum with two large but obscure obconical spots commencing on apical margin. Anterior femora with a strong spine about one third from apex, between which and apex are two smaller and much more obscure spines.

Long. 22 millim., exp. tegm. 69 millim.

This species is allied to O. signoreti, Stal, and 0. azteca, Dist., from both of which it differs by the neuration of the tegmina being unicolorous, by the basal margin of the eighth apical area being almost straight and oblique, the ulnar veins abruptly divergent at base, and also by the strongly carinate face. It is more than probable that some specimens of this species are green, and not ochraceous like the form here described.

References:

The illustration and description comes from Biologia Centrali-Americana. Insecta. Rhynchota. Hemiptera-Homoptera. Vol. 1. By W. L. Distant F.E.S. and The Rev. Canon W. W. Fowler, F.L.S. (1881-1905). Read it on the Biodiversity Heritage Library website.
Name verification comes from Allen Sanborn’s Catalogue of the Cicadoidea (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha).

Comments (0)